your photographic to-do list

[wmmk]

Hey photo people,
So many of us have lots of creative ideas, but never get to show them off to the world. So, what are your cool ideas for photos that you're yet to try, or are currently experimenting with. FWIW, these don't have to be your own original ideas.
Here are mine (sorry some aren't so original):

• Do more HDR with the opensource app I'm porting to OS X
• Take pictures of smoke and change the colors in PSE
• Shoot Panoramas
• Figure out how to use my DIY $10 Macro Studio and do some cool stuff with it
• Do some infared and creatively blend with color
• Get better at B&W conversion and RAW conversion
• Shoot places that most people wouldn't consider very beautiful (mostly in urban settings)
• Get some shots of blurred car lights (very cliché, I know)

 

[HckySo]

-Buy a Pocket Wizard and a light stand and white umbrella.
-Buy seamless background sheet

 

[Abstract]

[*]Shoot places that most people wouldn't consider very beautiful (mostly in urban settings)
[/LIST]

That's on my list.

Add:

1. Panning with moving objects.
2. A Valentines Day photo for my girlfriend. Since I'm not in a long-distance relationship with her (sigh), I have to send her something. I can send her chocolate, but she's not the biggest fan of chocolate unless it's dark, because regular chocolate is too sweet.

Anyway, I can't/don't want to send her flowers, as she lives in Japan and ordering flowers from a website would be quite tricky. Plus, on Valentines Day, the GIRLS give the GUYS presents!!!!1!1!1!!o1ne!!two! Girls get presents on White Day, which is on March 14th. She'll get something on March 14th as well.

So here's what I'm trying to do for the next few days:

• DIFFICULT: I bought a box of chocolate and 2 flowers, and I want to take a photo of me standing, with my arms held out in front of me, with a box of chcolate in one hand, and a flower in the other. It'll look like I'm giving her the chocolate and flower. The photo won't include my face, and will be shot diagonally, facing at a downward angle. The shot will include my arms, my body from my abdoment down to my knees or feet, the flowers, and the chocolate. I'll be wearing a suit, while my friend photographs it. This will be difficult because I don't know if he'll ever be able to photograph it the way I want.
  
• EASY: I'm going to take the box of chocolate and two flowers, put the box of chocolate down on the sand, lean one or both of the flowers against the chocolate box, and take a photo with a bit of sand and ocean in the background. The photo will be taken from a very low angle and rather close up. The background won't make a huge difference, but I'll know the difference, so I don't want to cheat.

This will be done over the next few days.

 

[cookie1105]

You old romantic Abstract - hope you manage to get the picture right.

As for me:
Get my flash off camera!

 

[sjl]

My to-do list? Well ...

• Buy a new battery ($AU80) for my compact.
• Take said compact underwater more often.
• Save up for an underwater housing for my DSLR ($AU6000, by the time I factor in lenses and strobes.)
• Go shooting more often!

 

[Martin C]

1) If a D40 shipment comes to the NYC B&H Superstore tomorrow, pick one up.
2) Buy memory card and Aperture for work in RAW
3) Start shooting!

 

[dobbin]

I'm going to make a pin-hole camera and see if I can take any (recognisable) pictures with it.

Apparently I have to use this stuff called "film" or something.

 

[GoCubsGo]

More large format (4x5) and buy the d200 in the next 2 months. I have the cash but I haven't really the desire to buy for some reason. It's a need though more than a want.

 

[-hh]

I'd say that my Photo "To Do" list is as follows:

1) Start planning for a new digital P&S before June vacation.

2) Run my "monthly" data backup ... that's 6 months overdue

3) Get my existing 35mm stuff better organized
3a) And digitized

4) Get my existing digital stuff better organized (workflow)

5) Put together several photo albums7

6) Sort out what I want to do for a good WA lens for my Canon 20D (1.6x crop body) & budget for same

7) Start my transition to digital for UW Photo ($$$)
7a) Mail my SS-200 strobes to Ikelite for upgrade to DS-200's ($1K)
7b) Pray that Canon releases a better/cheaper fullframe dSLR ($2K?)
7c) Figure out WA lens options, etc (merge with #6?)
7d) Buy UW Housing & Port(s) ($3K-$4K)
7e) Figure out how to pack all of this for airline flights ($0.5K?)
7f) Figure out how to convince my wife to spend this much money


-hh

 

[ChrisA]

My to-do list? Well ...

• Buy a new battery ($AU80) for my compact.
• Take said compact underwater more often.
• Save up for an underwater housing for my DSLR ($AU6000, by the time I factor in lenses and strobes.)
• Go shooting more often!

Another UW photographer

My goals ... The take my compact camera UW more and figure a way to bring my video setup on shore dives. Hauling a 20 pound camera through the surf on a rocky beach is a hassle. Need to get a padded floating box and an anchor for said box I really do want to capture California Diving and our kelp forests.

After I upgrade the D50 I'll house it and a macro lens but I'll wait till then

Yes, go shooting more often. I live less then 10 minutes from the ocean and I'm in the water two days a week -- I have no excuses.

 

[SpookTheHamster]

My goal is just to take more pictures. I've been way too swamped at university that I've barely touched my camera since September. There's also the long-running goal of putting a website up.

 

[compuwar]

I'm going to make a pin-hole camera and see if I can take any (recognisable) pictures with it.

Apparently I have to use this stuff called "film" or something.

You can buy pinhole lens caps that work fine wiht digital diffraction issues aside.

I'd really like to get a shot of the Korean War Memorial in the fog, and potentially with snow coming down. Fog's probably going to have to wait for fall though.

 

[sjl]

Another UW photographer

Well, I'm more of a wannabe than a real UW photographer; a lot of what I want to shoot, my current camera simply cannot do. Its widest FOV is the equivalent of 35mm on a 35mm film camera (it's a Powershot S50); its macro ability is nowhere near what I would consider acceptable; and the shutter lag is no end of frustrating. But $80 for a new battery to get it working again is more palatable than the $AU6000 for all the kit I'd need to take decent shots with the DSLR, alas.

Yes, go shooting more often. I live less then 10 minutes from the ocean and I'm in the water two days a week -- I have no excuses.

I'm sure I'd find more excuses to go diving if I had the UW housing for my DSLR. Some of the dive sites in Melbourne are absolutely gorgeous. For instance, here's a couple of the better shots in my collection from two of the piers on the south side of Melbourne's bay:



But I'm finding that shots like those tend to be the exception rather than the rule with my current kit, damnit.

 

[wwooden]

Seeing I just bought my first DSLR about a month ago, all I want to do is take more shots and get comfortable with my camera. While taking these shots, I also want to keep notes of what type of shots I wish I could take and in a few months buy a lens or two that would fill these requirements.

I also want to get better with digital development. Right now I just use iPhoto and to some very basic touch up to the photos. But i would like to get into Aperture and photoshop and really understand how to take a good shot and make it the best it can be.

 

[smitty330]

MY LIST

Take more HDR photos and put them together

Get out and shoot more often

decide wheather to buy a MBP or a D200

use the bulb and long shutter speed more often as well

use photoshop, but also learn how to take that perfect picture so photoshop can or could be skipped.

 

[wmmk]

-Buy a Pocket Wizard and a light stand and white umbrella.
-Buy seamless background sheet

here, here. (maybe not the background sheet, though). I'm thinking of either a couple more strobes too or some high quality lamps. and on the subject of buying stuff, a system to calibrate my monitor AND printer would help a TON!

 

[compuwar]

here, here. (maybe not the background sheet, though). I'm thinking of either a couple more strobes too or some high quality lamps. and on the subject of buying stuff, a system to calibrate my monitor AND printer would help a TON!

Printer calibration is relatively expensive equipment-wise. You can find deals online to do calibrations for $30ea, which would be a way better deal over time unless you calibrate more than once a month.

 

[wmmk]

Printer calibration is relatively expensive equipment-wise. You can find deals online to do calibrations for $30ea, which would be a way better deal over time unless you calibrate more than once a month.

hmmm...
How much, let's say would a low end printer calibrator be? And is getting a $99 photo printer calibrated even worth $30 a month? Anyway, where would one find these online deals? oh, and FWIW, I have the worst color issues with matte paper, glossy isn't as bad...

 

[RedTomato]

- Backup my photo collection!

- Try to chuck out some of my worse photos. I have about 8000 photos, and I'd rather have 300 good ones.

- Get a small off-camera flash. (I don't know if this is possible with my Canon Powershot A70)

- play around with snoots on my off-camera flash.

- work through the the guides on http://www.strobist.com

- order some of the books on the strobist bookshelf, especially the one on lighting in film.

 

[wmmk]

- work through the the guides on http://www.strobist.com

same. I've already completed the DIY Macro studio, and I LOVE(!) it.

 

[ChrisA]

-
- Get a small off-camera flash. (I don't know if this is possible with my Canon Powershot A70)

II use an A80 inside an underwater housing and have and off camera strobe. The strobe is a "slave" and is triggered by the on-camera flash hitting a light sensor on the off-camera strobe. If you don't want two lights to hit the subject you can use tape and some white paper to deflect the on-camera flash's light upward to the ceiling.

The A series Canons will do a preflash which can fool some slave strobes but if you put the camera into manual mode it does not preflash.

On my setup I have a short length of fiber optic cable. One end points at the on-camera strobe the other end points at the light sensor on the of-camera strobe. I have completely blocked the light from the on-camera strobe using some aluminum sheet metal salvaged from a soda can.

Google found this
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=657

 

[hodgjy]

My next projects might be:

--Pictures of a chess board with really narrow depth of field, isolating one piece

--Smoke pictures

--Ultra-wide shots at the docks using the funny perspective to my advantage, perhaps like making the docking ropes connected to the boat look huge and long

--I might even try some self-portraits

 

[RedTomato]

II use an A80 inside an underwater housing and have and off camera strobe. The strobe is a "slave" and is triggered by the on-camera flash hitting a light sensor on the off-camera strobe. If you don't want two lights to hit the subject you can use tape and some white paper to deflect the on-camera flash's light upward to the ceiling.
...

Many thanks, I suspected this was possible with my camera but wasn't 100% sure.

I almost never ever use the on-board flash, it wrecks my photos without fail.

The only photos that have worked with flash are my night-time 2+ second exposures where I use the flash to illuminate and freeze the foreground characters, and the 2 second exposure to pick up on the stars / city light / fireworks in the background.

 

[mcmadhatter]

I'm going to make a pin-hole camera and see if I can take any (recognisable) pictures with it.

Apparently I have to use this stuff called "film" or something.

I did that for an art project once - used an old beer can (actually 12 old beer cans, I made 12 cameras as going back to the darkroom to unload after every shot was annoying). some black card and some masking tape. the images came out in a sureal fish eye way dur to the curvature fo the can, and were negative as I was taking them straight onto the photo paper.


got some cool shots though, I'll try and dig them out.

 

[ChrisBrightwell]

1. Buy some lenses that don't suck.
2. Use them.